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Increasing employment opportunity for persons with spinal cord injury by digital working: an exampling case series from Thailand

Spinal Cord Series and Cases volume 10, Article number: 11 (2024) Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 17 April 2024

This article has been updated

Abstract

Introduction

Due to activity limitations and physical environmental barriers, low remunerative employment is a challenging issue for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and relevant rehabilitation personnel. Since work opportunities in digital fields have continued to emerge, this study aims to report and discuss the possibility of using digital working as a strategy for increasing remunerative employment in people with SCI.

Case presentation

We report live experiences of four people with SCI in Thailand who have digital works with different types of jobs (image segmentation and identification for artificial intelligence development, online merchant, online streamer, cryptocurrency investor), different required digital skills (basic or intermediate digital skills), different employment statuses (employee or owner), and different incomes (from 50 to 200 USD/month). We also discuss advantages and potential risks of digital working for people with SCI and propose a model for care providers to facilitate safe digital work as a means of increasing remunerative opportunities for people with SCI.

Conclusion

There is increasing interest in becoming involved in various types of digital work among people with SCI. Digital working could overcome many of the physical barriers; however, it also potentially introduces some potential economic and health risks for people with SCI. To minimize those risks, healthcare providers of people with SCI should prepare to develop the appropriate knowledge and attitudes regarding digital working and to learn how to properly facilitate digital working to increase remunerative employment in people with SCI.

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Fig. 1: Advantages and potential risks of digital working in people with spinal cord injury and roles of health care providers.

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Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor G. Lamar Robert, Ph.D. for English language editing assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Sintip Pattanakuhar & Paksupa Prommueang

  2. Swiss Paraplegic Centre, Nottwil, Switzerland

    Sintip Pattanakuhar & Urban Schwegler

  3. Department of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Urban Schwegler

  4. Institute of Health Informatics, University College London, London, UK

    Tuankasfee Hama

  5. SmartContract Blockchain Studio, Bangkok, Thailand

    Sathapon Patanakuha

  6. Occupational Therapy Unit, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

    Narumon Sumin

Authors
  1. Sintip Pattanakuhar
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  2. Urban Schwegler
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  3. Paksupa Prommueang
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  4. Tuankasfee Hama
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  5. Sathapon Patanakuha
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  6. Narumon Sumin
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Contributions

SP was responsible for designing the research questions, interviewing the patients, drafting the manuscript, and writing the final version of the manuscript. PP was responsible for designing the research questions, interviewing the patients, and commenting on the final version of the manuscript. US, TH, SaP, and NS were responsible for designing the research questions and commenting on the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sintip Pattanakuhar.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Statement of ethics

The authors certify that in our institute, deidentified case series are waived from ethical approval. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant under national regulations.

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Pattanakuhar, S., Schwegler, U., Prommueang, P. et al. Increasing employment opportunity for persons with spinal cord injury by digital working: an exampling case series from Thailand. Spinal Cord Ser Cases 10, 11 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41394-024-00625-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41394-024-00625-6

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